Arsenal reach FA Cup semifinals, Man City through too

Arsenal were expected to breeze past their unfancied rivals and they succeeded in doing so. (photo courtesy: twitter.com/@Arsenal)

Arsenal beat non-league club Lincoln City 5-0 at the Emirates in the FA Cup quarter-final. Arsenal, playing their first match since their 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League, had a shaky start but they got better as the game progressed, dashing the hopes of the visiting side hoping to feature in their first FA Cup semifinal, to be held at Wembley. Lincoln City, who ply their trade in the fifth tier of English football, had two very contrasting halves of football.

Arsenal won amid the usual protests calling for sacking Wenger

The visiting side looked in control of the game for a great part of the first half. Their careful defending combined with a physical approach to the game took an unspirited Arsenal team by surprise. Though Arsenal were the team to open the scoring via Theo Walcott just before the half-time. His shot from close range was deflected inside the goal in front of the goalkeeper. The first half did not produce any more goal.

Second half saw Arsenal dominate over their unfancied rivals. Long period of pressure paved way for Arsenal’s second goal as Olivier Giroud scored in the 50th minute to make it 2-0.

Lincoln captain Luke Waterfall, in a bid to sway the ball away from the goal, scored an own goal in the 59th minute to make it 3-0 for Arsenal. Alexis Sanchez scored a beautiful curling goal in 72nd minute to virtually knock the non-league club out of game. Moments later, Aaron Ramsey tapped-in to make it 5-0 after the Lincoln defence failed to clear the ball. Receiving a chip pass metres away from goal, Ramsey left the goalkeeper wrong-footed with his first touch before scoring. The match ended at 5-0 in favour of Arsenal as they progressed to the semifinals of the FA Cup for the third time in four seasons.

Lincoln City can take pride in their FA Cup campaign this season as they became the first non-league team to progress to the quarterfinals since 1914. (photo courtesy: twitter.com/@Arsenal)

In other quarter-final of the day, Manchester City beat Middlesbrough 2-0 to book their semifinals ticket. Tottenham will face Millwall while Manchester United will take on Chelsea for the two remaining semi-final spots.